Chris Roberts: Star Citizen's Dogfighting Module to launch later this year

Cloud Imperium's Chris Roberts has announced a release window for at least part of their upcoming space title Star Citizen.

Fans and backers will be able to get their hands on the dogfighting module of Star Citizen after this year's PAX event. Roberts also revealed that there would be a special Citizens-only event held just before PAX East.

“If all goes as planned, the Dogfighting Module itself will launch shortly after PAX and you will finally get your hands on your flight sticks,” Roberts stated.

He added, “The team is scurrying to take care of thousands upon thousands of necessary details: variable damage states, HUD detailing, weapons cameras, engine sounds and countless other things that go into creating an immersive space combat experience. At this point, we can now regularly dogfight here in the office.”

He also revealed that the development team at Cloud Imperium has swollen to around 212 people. This is in no small part down to the game's huge feature set and scope which have only grown as Star Citizens' crowd funding has increased, the total currently sitting at 39 million USD.

“You may find it interesting to know that as of this moment there are 212 people working on Star Citizen between the internal and external studios and contractors,” Roberts revealed. “More people are working on this project than most AAA console titles, and it’s definitely the largest team to work on a Space Sim. These are jobs you have created. It’s an amazing accomplishment and it’s all down to your passion for space sims, PCs and doing something different.”

He added, “Not only that but these are 212 developers that want what you want – to make the best game possible – they don’t have to worry about a publisher pushing them to release early to plug a hole in a quarterly revenue plan or to incorporate a feature just because it’s the flavour of the month.”